Commercial and home cooks often decorate food surfaces for formal dinners, birthdays and special occasions. Foods may be decorated with edible flowers, icing, coloring tubes for writing of a sugar based paste, and/or edible wafers having images of photographs.
A number of known devices are designed to form a pattern, design or silhouette in food while the device also cooks the food, such as, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,996,476 to Schultz; 5,642,659 to Seasona et al., and 5,789,009, invented by Kordic et al. The patent to Mosby et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,927, describes a device for producing designs on a slice of bread during toasting by shielding the bread in the shape of the design from the heat and thereby forming an image on the surface of the bread. Fiorenza, U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,349, discloses a toaster accessory which is dimensioned to fit a pre-made sandwich into a conventional toaster and optionally form decorative designs with inserts panels.
Other devices produce edible decorations which may be placed on food surfaces as desired, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,026 to Feeley. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,273 to Krubert discloses a method of forming a hard, non-porous icing surface by drying an icing mixture and printing one or more edible inks on the icing using a printing pad having an edible silicone oil. The Quinlivan U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,978, discloses a method of transferring decorative designs onto baked goods by transferring a pre-printed design from a transfer material to an uncooked dough surface. Macpherson et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,394, describe a method of using a silk screen to form thin, flat, flexible, free standing base shapes or transfers directly on release paper to produce the final edible image for decorating foodstuffs. Ahn, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,834,047, discloses a method of imprinting shapes of multiple colors inside confectionery products with edible ink.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,305 to Naivar describes a device that forms char marks to mimic a grill pattern on the surface of foods.
Older devices are known which may shape and cut dough foods such as, for example, an elongate rolling pin designed to roll and cut dough into long strips, a rolling pin designed to cut dough into shapes rather than using individual cookie cutters, and a rolling pin designed to form ravioli by pinching two layers of dough together at preset intervals after filing had been placed between the layers. See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 522,465 to Goodnough; 2,099,286 to Usbeck; and 2,075,157 to Alberti, respectively. Additionally, a U.S. Pat. No. 177,319, to Blaul, discloses a rolling pin having a permanently affixed intaglio, or engraved/carved, pattern to form shapes in the dough.
Also known is a dual rolling pin device having two rolling pins in the same plane and container means located above the rolling pins to emit flour over the surface of the rolling pins to prevent dough from sticking to the pins while in use. See, U.S. Pat No. 4,426,200 to Miller.
Frequently, writing is desired on various foodstuffs where the use of icing or a sugar base paste is undesirable. Therefore, an alternative device would be useful for marking foods on special occasions or, for example, re-enforcing the name of a pizzeria or bakery on pizza or breadsticks. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a device to mark foods.